


The sky isn't so empty

by Pikkulef



Series: Daredevil Post S3 Collection [4]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 19:25:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18394820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pikkulef/pseuds/Pikkulef
Summary: In New York, you can see a lot of things, but there are some you can't, even if you aren't blind.Post S3 one shot.





	The sky isn't so empty

It was late, very late, on a week evening. They had all worked like crazy for the past few days, staying at Nelson, Murdock and Page until past midnight. Exhausted, maybe more so than the others considering he was also standing watch _after_ midnight, on the streets, Matt felt his eyes close against his will as his hands were going over yet another stash of files the court had been amiable enough to have printed in Braille for him.

 

Waste of paper, waste of money, and waste of time. There was nothing in them.

 

He stretched, groaning, and felt his watch. Less than five minutes past midnight. It was probably a church bells ringing somewhere that tore him away from his half drowsiness, half concentration. He didn’t remember the last sentences he had read, just that they were dull and empty of any useful information.

 

Tilting his head, he let his senses inform him of what the others were up to, in their respective offices. Matt smiled. Foggy was snoring lightly, his head in his hand, propped up on his elbow. Like him, he probably decided that he was just going to close his eyes for five minutes, and then…

 

Karen wasn’t sleeping. She was up, standing by the window. Looking up.

 

It wasn’t the first time Matt had noticed her doing that. He often wondered what she was looking at, or if she was looking at anything at all, when she did this. Straining his hearing as much as he could, he didn’t pick any specific sound, no plane, no helicopter, nothing she could be looking up at, right now. Maybe she was just lost in her thoughts, reflecting on something she read. But she didn’t seem to be. He wouldn’t be caught admitting it, but he had studied her enough to know when she was lost in thoughts or not. She had little quirks, little movements or even sounds she did only when she was. She didn’t do them there.

 

Matt got up with a sigh. He could do with some sleep. But that was a luxury he couldn’t afford right now. He walked to Karen’s office, just across the small hall they now received their new clients in. She turned towards him right away - she _wasn’t_ lost in thoughts.

“Hey.  
“Hey.” He greeted her back. “Not sleeping?  
“Not yet, but I was considering going home, yeah. But I still have so much to do…    
“Foggy couldn’t make it.” Matt tilted his head in the direction of Foggy’s office. Karen had a look through her door and chuckled as she turned back towards Matt.  
“What should we do?  
“Let him sleep. He’ll wake up, eventually, either by himself or when Marci calls to ask where the fuck he is.”  
Karen had a silent laugh, and turned back to the window again, looking up. Matt knew she wasn’t sending him off - she had just gotten used to him not minding if she faced him or not, when in casual conversation.  
“I’ll make coffee” he offered, and Karen replied with a nod and a soft sound, not turning. She wasn’t lost in thought, but she was melancholic.

Matt took care of the coffee, brewing it exactly at the right temperature, and brought two mugs to Karen’s office, one with sugar, one without. He walked up next to her, by the window, and handed the sugar one to Karen.  
“Thank you, Matt.”  
He felt her look at him with a smile, but he knew her mind was elsewhere. He was curious, yet he didn’t want to pry. He licked his lips and drank his coffee, him too, turned towards the glass, only the sole thing he got out of it, were the vibrations of outside sounds, sometimes interpretable as a car driving by or someone knocking down garbage bins, sometimes mysterious, even for him.

“You want to say something.” Karen talked over her coffee, and her heart had spiked - not much, but enough for him to notice.  
Matt shrugged with a smile. “You’re going to tell me you have enhanced senses too?  
“You just licked your lips.” It sounded like Karen’s smile was more genuine now, even slightly amused, as if she was happy to return what he was constantly doing to her. “You do this when you’re embarrassed, or when you want to say something. And your eyes, they betray you a lot more than you think. You’re here, but contrary to usual, you’re not actively trying to face me. So there’s something. But not something you wanted to say first, because you would have when you entered.”

Matt let his head drop, then nodded. He took a deep breath, but smiled. “You’re good.” He levelled up his head again, this time trying to keep his eyes where he felt her face would be. “I just… I wondered what you were looking at, through the window. You often do this, looking up, yet I can’t find what you may be watching, and it often makes you… not sad, not really, but… melancholic, somehow.”  
  
Karen was moved that he noticed that - but of course he would. Some time ago, it would have unnerved her, she would have felt spied on. But now it felt more like he was keeping an eye on her, so to speak, because he cared for her and how she felt. She glanced at him, drinking his coffee, his uncovered eyes directed somewhere around her mouth, unfocused, but attentive. Seeing him “looking” at her with that intent expression brought a pang of warmth in her chest. He really did care about what she was feeling right now, and it pained him to feel her sadness without being able to do anything about it.    
“Longing. That’s the word.  
“Longing for what?” Even his voice had grown softer.  
Karen shrugged and had a small sigh. “Past times. More innocent ones, I guess.  
“Happier?  
“Maybe. I’m kinda happy now, if it’s what’s you’re asking. I just remember things, and there are things I miss, stupid things, in fact. Mundane stuff, that I will never have back. Some of them that I could, but is it really worth it. I don’t know.” She stopped, and he was still listening to her, his head tilted on one side, but his eyes were averted now, and she felt he might also be thinking about his own things he missed. She felt he understood, somehow, what she was talking about. Probably not the things themselves, but the feeling. She shrugged, and put a light tone to it.  
“The kind of things you end up thinking about in the middle of the night, when you feel tired and want to go home… but not the home that is waiting for you.” She stopped. He was again listening intently at her, but some sadness had darkened his brow.  He probably knew what she was going to say. “A home that doesn’t exist anymore. All this because I miss one stupid, mundane, useless thing.”

She wouldn’t say what she missed, and Matt didn’t understand why. All this was very heartfelt and deep, and he understood, deeply, what she meant ; she missed her family, and her old home, yet she would never get it back.

He could relate.

But that specific thing she missed, he had no idea what it was, and she said it was mundane, so why hide it? He took her hand, casually. They had grown accustomed to touching, often, either in public because a blind man would need to, but also in private - as friends do, and maybe, because he did need it, in some ways.  
“What is it? That mundane thing that you miss?  
Karen opened her mouth, then closed it, then sighed. She was embarrassed. “It’s dumb, really. I miss the stars.  
“The stars?” Matt frowned. Surely she could see stars in New York, when the skies were clear. He remembered looking up from the roof of the building where they lived, his father and him, and managing to make out  “the Great Bear” as his father called it. But that was all. He was never really interested in them, and there weren’t much to see. And afterwards, there wasn’t anything at all.

“You can’t see them?" He blinked, at a loss. "It doesn’t… feel like it’s overcast.

“No, you're right, the sky is clear, there’s no clouds. It’s just… it’s just not the same. I can only make out a few of them when I’m lucky. When I was young…” She stopped. And looked at him. His puzzled looks had left place to a beginning comprehension. “In Vermont, it’s different. We lived so far from big cities, the skies were all for us. No outside light. And there were so many stars. You can’t… I’m sorry. That’s why I wouldn’t tell you.

“Because I can’t see them?” He tilted his head again.    
“Yeah, and because you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, if you’ve spent all your life here. And it pains me that you don’t, and never will, now.”  
Matt smiled, that small, quite sad little smile he mastered and that made her heart melt. But it was more for her that he was smiling this way. He wasn’t sad about the stars. He visibly hesitated, but placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed a little.  
“Don’t, okay? There are so many things I can only describe to you, that you will never experience, remember?”  
She had a small nod and a silent laugh again - indeed, she could never imagine what his perceptions were like. That made him smile again, and this time it wasn’t sad - yet she felt her heart melt once more.

“That’s your thing, then. The stars. I have my own world to marvel at, and even if you will never feel all I can, I can still share it with you by telling you about it. So please, do so, too, if you want to share.” His smile, and voice, became a little more teasing. “I like to hear your voice, remember?”  
Karen smiled, and placed her hand on his, still on her shoulder.    
“I remember. Would you like me to talk to you about the stars?” She looked at him. He nodded. Then she thought. She had a car, after all. A luxury, in this place. Why not use it?  
“Or maybe I should take you out of the city. And describe them to you, just under them. I bet you would appreciate the change of surroundings.” She saw him consider it, and his face light up. “When this case is over, we should have a small trip. Just go, look at the stars, and back. Would you like that?  
“I’d love it.”  
They separated a little, their hands back to their coffee mugs. She turned her head back up, and she could spot the tail and upper part of the Great Bear just in the little strip of sky she was granted between the tall buildings. She turned towards Matt, and he had tilted his head backwards too, as if he was looking up. His smile was broad now.

 

**Author's Note:**

> If I find time and will maybe I'll write another chapter ;)


End file.
